Real-life Rapunzel has awesome hair — but the struggle is real

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27 year-old Alia Nasyrova of Latvia has a magnificent mane measuring over 90 inches. That's 7.5 feet long (or about 2.3 metres, if you lean metric). Truly Rapunzel esque, her healthy hair is longer than she is. And, yes, it is storybook beautiful.

But her life under legendary locks comes at a price. It takes Alia an hour to comb her hair every day. So, a little over two weeks a year is spent untangling her mane. And an entire day is set aside to let her locks air dry, honouring her no hairdryer policy. That's well over a month and a half every year, just drying her tresses.

Thankfully, she only washes her hair once a week. Surprisingly, a wash only takes 20 minutes or so. Still, the hair care regimen is pretty severe. Her husband, Ivan Balaban, who keeps his hair nice and short, says they have to plan their vacations accordingly, or else they'd lose a whole vacay day sitting around indoors watching hair dry, as they would at home.

The burden of amazing hair is a heavy one. The combined weight of her combs, brushes shampoos and conditioners is 22 lbs. And Alia says the weight of the hair itself, usually kept braided, is tough on her shoulders and neck too. It weighs nearly 4.5 lbs, nearly as much as her cat.

Her husband jokes that her braid is like another family member. It takes up more space in bed than he does. In an attempt to avoid damaging or tangling it, he takes up only a narrow sliver of precious mattress real estate. But he says he loves her hair and is proud of her for not cutting it. He even has a sense of humour about it. He can barely keep a straight face when he explains to Barcroft TV that he talks to it very respectfully and often asks if it can have a bit more room.

Managing her mane is time consuming but not that costly. To manage split ends, she gives herself a trim once a month so salon prices aren't an issue. And she gets tons of free hair products with hair care product companies eager to ride her pigtails.

As something of a fairytale fangirl, she began growing her hair out 20 years ago to emulate their female protagonists. I'll let you figure out which one was her fave. And though she doesn't plan on cutting her hair any time soon, she adopts a #longhairdontcare philosophy to living a hirsute existence. "I don't have a dream to get in Guinness Record Book since I believe the current registered record for longest hair is more than five metres, but I think I have longest hair in Latvia."

Though it's not the longest worldwide, her Instagram account claims she is the "Queen of super long hair". With over 17 thousand followers, she very well may be. Long may her reign of mane last.